NEW DELHI: A five per cent cut in passenger fares in second class in long distance trains and a reduction in upper class fares has been proposed in the Rail Budget for 2008-09 which also has no across-the-board increase in freight rates. Continuing the trend of not hiking passenger fares in the last four years in the face of stiff competition from low cost airlines, the budget will make AC first class travel cheaper by seven per cent and AC-II by four per cent.

A one rupee discount per passenger for fares upto Rs 50 in non-suburban second class fares has been presented in the fifth budget presented by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in the Lok Sabha.Five per cent reduction in freight rates on petrol and diesel were also proposed in the budget with the Minister claiming a cash surplus of Rs 25,000 crore before dividend.

Announcing a broad range of sops, Prasad raised the concessional travel for senior women citizens from 30 to 50 per cent in all classes while men above 60 will continue to enjoy only 30 per cent concession.Free monthly season tickets in second class for girl students upto 12th standard and boys upto 10th standard will be extended for girls upto graduation and boys upto 12th standard.

The freight loading target for the coming year has been fixed at 850 million tonnes over the revised target of 790 MT this year.The annual plan size for 2008-09 has been fixed at Rs 37,500 crore, the largest ever outlay so far. A budgetary support of Rs 7,874 crore has been estimated with internal resources at Rs 21,126 crore and extra-budgetary resources at Rs 8,500 crore.

The five per cent across-the-board discount for passenger fares beyond Rs 50 will apply for all non-suburban second class ordinary and mail and express trains. The discount for travel in new design high capacity reserved coaches has been raised by another two per cent which will result in reduction in six per cent in the fares in two years.While rationalization of fares will make AC first class travel seven per cent cheaper and AC-II by four per cent, the reduction will be only 50 per cent for popular trains and during peak period.

The Minister also tinkered with the classification of tariff to make freight rates cheaper with a special concession for traffic booked for north-eastern states.In passenger services, Prasad announced introduction of 10 new Garib Raths (poor man's airconditioned trains), 53 pairs of new trains, extension of 16 pairs of trains and increase in frequency of 11 pairs. 300 additional services have been planned in Mumbai suburban.To commemorate the ter-centenary function of Shri Guru Granth Sahib Gurta Gaddi, a special train will be run from Anandpur Sahib to Patna Sahib.

Another special train will be run between Pune and Delhi for Commonwealth Youth Games being held in Pune from October 12 to October 18 this year. As part of improvements in ticketing, Prasad said termination of queues at ticket counters has been targeted in two years by increasing the UTS counters from 3,000 to 15,000 and automatic ticket vending machines from 250 to 6,000 during the coming year.

Ticket booking on mobile phones, extension of Jansadharan ticket booking seva, e-ticket for waitlisted passengers and ticket on "Go Mumbai Card" in Mumbai suburban are being planned.Other passenger amenities like online coach indication display board, online train arrival departure information board and online reservation availability board and provision of discharge-free green toilets in all 36,000 coaches during 11th Plan period at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore have been proposed.

Ashok Chakra awardees will be provided free passes in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains while AIDS patients will be given 50 per cent concession in second class fares for travel for treatment to nominated Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) centres.In cooperation with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Railways will run a mother-child health express on a pilot basis at concessional fares for providing medical facilities for mother and child.

As part of special recruitment drives, minority welfare cells will be opened in Railway Board and zonal railways and Urdu will be introduced as a medium of examination in Group 'D' posts in states where it is the second official language.